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[May 2002]
Ceramic Bore Coating Improves Motorsport Engine Performance
Poeton Aptec - a division of Poeton Industries Ltd, Gloucester, England - has been demonstrating improvements to the performance and reliability of motorsport engines with one of its lead products. Apticote Ceramic 2000 is a metal matrix coating system specifically developed for high performance automotive applications such as engine block cylinder bores and engine liners.Poeton Aptec works hand in hand with Perfect Bore Liners Ltd, a company synonymous with the production of high end performance ceramic coated cylinder liners and bores for the Formula 1 and Indy Car engine supply markets. This partnership has developed a highly successful 'parent metal coating' process to apply the same level of performance coatings/finishes to the surface of cylinder bores where no liners exist.
The spin-offs to this technology are now being used in Nascar, NHRA, Touring Car and Historic Car restoration programmes, in both alloy and cast iron crankcases, from single cylinder to V12 applications.
Perfect Bore Liners also manufactures dry liners from either aluminium or steel with a 1mm or lower wall thickness but still carrying the Apticote 2000 ceramic coating with its high wear endurance and low friction performance advantages.
Apticote Ceramic 2000, which can be finished in a variety of surface topographies, consists of an oleofilic hard metal coating loaded with minute, ultra-hard ceramic particles. Key properties of the coating are an apparent hardness of 580Hv to 680Hv, a particle hardness of 2500Hv to 3000Hv, a particle loading of 12% to 14%, a melting point of 1400oC and a typical thickness of 60 microns to 80 microns.
The coating process itself has been specially tailored for a variety of base materials, including aluminium, steel, cast iron, MMCs, hypereutectic alloys etc. Where traditional methods of final finishing try to achieve a cross-hatched plateau honed structure to hold an oil film, the oleofilic properties of Apticote Ceramic 2000 allow very much finer finishes to be obtained, explains Poeton, while still achieving excellent oil retention. The finer finish also reduces wear and pressure on piston rings and reduces oil consumption and friction.
Actual motorsport applications have proved that, for example, cast iron V8 engine blocks coated with Apticote Ceramic 2000 achieve five times the formal race life and provide dramatic improvements in piston wear, oil consumption and blow-by.
ENDS